Satan enticed Eve with the prospect of becoming like God. Having the Lord’s power and wisdom is something everyone longs for, which explains the popularity of fantasy heroes. But actually becoming like God depends on our willingness to forgive.

The final chapter of Daniel predicts “a troubled time” for God’s people. The prophecy seems to foretell the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. But maybe the emotion stirred by Daniel’s vision is more important to the reader than the information revealed in it.

As Jesus traveled toward Jerusalem, he met ten lepers. They begged him for healing, and he graciously honored their plea for mercy. But only one of them gave thanks (Luke 17:15-17). The others seemed to be trading one disease for another – leprosy for ingratitude.

In the aftermath of a terrible crime (like the one perpetrated in Thousand Oaks, California), do you ever wonder how people can be so inhuman and evil? Daniel’s vision on the bank of the Tigris River gives us an eye-opening answer.

Atheists say that Christians believe in “the God of the gaps.” There are things we can’t explain, and so we attribute them to God – sort of like how people hear a creak in the attic and fear that a ghost is lurking up there. Is this accusation fair?